Growing short rotation coppice for electricity production purposes could represent a real alternative in utilising less favoured plough-lands in a rational way in the years to come. However, only few reliable results were gained in relation to the ecologic evaluation of short rotation coppice plantations in the recent years in Hungary. The examination of the long-term effects of growing such plants is hindered by the fact that there are very few short rotation coppice plantations which are older than 5–6 years. In 2007, in the Crop Production and Biomass Utilisation Demonstration Centre of the Szent István University in Gödöllő, a short rotation coppice experiment was established on rusty brown forest soil under unfavourable production site conditions. The effects of five willow species (Salix sp.) and three plant nutrition treatments (control, fertiliser, compost) were examined in the experiment. The aim of this study is to show the change of soil conditions during the four years after the establishment of short rotation coppice plantations in willow experiments on brown forest soil in Gödöllő. The qualification of the soil conditions was done with soil penetration resistance, moisture content, bulk density and pore volume measurements.

Based on the penetration resistance examined up to 50 cm depth, it can be established that the plant nutrition treatments did not have any direct effect on the penetration resistance. In the first three years of the experiment, the soil penetration resistance was gradually increasing in the examined layers of the soil (i.e. from 0.5 MPa to 2.9 MPa in the 0–10 cm layer and from 1.2 MPa to 4.9 MPa in the layer below 20 cm). In the fourth year of experiment, the balancing and parallel reduction of the penetration resistance values were observed. The value of penetration resistance was significantly increased in parallel with other soil use systems (sunflower production with ploughing, winter wheat production without ploughing) (2.1–2.8 MPa in 0–20 cm depth, and 3.4–3.6 MPa in 20–50 cm in short rotation coppice), but it still did not reach the harmful level of compaction. Similar is true about bulk density as 0.2–0.3 g cm-3 smaller values were obtained on plots treated with compost. It was shown in plots treated with compost that the moisture loss of the soil can be reduced which helps coprs in surviving drier periods and it preserves the favourable physical and biological condition of the soil.

Keywords: short rotation coppice, soil condition, penetration resistance, soil water content, bulk density